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Independence Days – July 29

Despite a long, somewhat un-food-focused week, I’ve been trying to keep up with Independence Days here and there. News about drought and rising food prices has me concerned, and I’m trying to gear up my food production and storage a bit more to help mitigate some of the issues that we seem to be facing. Hopefully this week will be even better, especially now that I have on project off my plate, and another nearly completed as well.

Plant something: More arugula and lettuce; started a new kombucha scoby; started a ginger beer starter

Waste not: Thrift store purchases – one pair jeans and one cardigan, one reference book (The Nature Principle), and one large jar for storage; worked on storing and eating leftover promptly; used chicken bones to make stock; made further use of the quick sale grocery store produce racks

Build community food systems: Not so much here – between caring for my container garden and the plot across the street, most of my energy has gone to food production rather than building food systems

Skill up: Easing back into knitting (I decided I’d do better if I started with something really basic, rather than trying to resume a sweater that I have no idea where I stopped on); still working on the guitar here and there; reading as much as possible on good gardening practices

Get healthy: Still keeping up with the walking and biking as much as possible, plus regular gardening; lots of healthy foods; trying for a bit more sleep and to get fully into meditation as a daily practice, rather than something that happens a few times when it strikes me

I have a week of meetings and dealing with a journal issue coming up, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the market (I’ve missed the past two weeks for different reasons), and hopefully getting some jam made to free up a bit more freezer space. With any luck, there may also be some corn to freeze (pricey as it is), and if I can get some cucumbers and tomatoes in bulk, I’d like to try my hand at a bit more canning – I’ve made both pickles and tomato sauce before, but never to can. Admittedly, this might be a bit ambitious, but if I get even half of this done, I’ll be pretty happy with that.